Environmental ArticlesFire Fire - Part IV Have you heard of the new show, "Are You Hot?" Am I hot? Hell, ya. Who isn't these days? I mean, what choice do we have, now that Mother Earth is having extended hot flashes every summer. Just like a woman. Hormones out of control. But who can blame her? With all the hormones we've been dumping into livestock feed, flushing into our water systems, and generally spreading around, no wonder she's out of whack. The whole thing makes me hot under the collar. Global warming, droughts, lowered water tables, it practically drives you to drink just thinking about it. Except unfortunately, this week's not our turn to turn on the tap. There's even a website called, "My Well Is Dry." Honest. It's at www.mywellisdry.com, check it out for yourself. Ok. So far, we've covered water, earth and air. This week's environmental rant is "fire." Fire? The first person I want to fire is whoever is responsible for letting the Hydro One guy spray our property with Norlan 4 even though the owner called to emphatically request that this not be done. My dogs ran up to the guy with the bright blue canister, tromping all through the stuff just to say hello, while their paws soaked it up. They were wagging their tails, it was me who was growling. What was the point of advertising a number to call to cancel this "service" if your request is ignored? To his credit, the guy stopped spraying when I bared my teeth, but it was too late, my girls had already had their chemical footbaths. Let's see, what else am I fired up about this week? Well, I have a confession to make. Better get that over with. I've divided this series into sections - water, earth, air and this week's "fire." But, the truth is, that's a completely artificial way to talk about the biosphere. The earth, as a living entity, can no more be considered a collection of isolated parts than can human beings. Sure, I know that only a specialist can perform a heart bypass, but the heart would soon die without oxygen, the blood would not pump without the fuel we eat, and we would soon peter out without the spark of life carried through our nervous system. The chorus from a song entitled "Ravens" by Gaia Consort pretty much sums it up: "Earth my body; Water my blood; Air my breath and Fire my spirit." We cannot exist without any of these, and neither can our planet. This week, I could talk about the global increase in droughts, forest fires and electrical storms, but I think I'd rather wrap up this series by asking: how is it that we've let things go so far as to put our very survival into question? No other species on the planet has been that dumb. How is it that even a nine-year old "gets it," when we adults continue to ignore the obvious signs of peril? Tifffany Kerr, a young Wiarton girl, began to worry about drought when she was only nine years old. Her poem, "Rain Rain," says it all: Rain Rain Rain rain come right now there's not a drop to drink. ~ Tiffany Kerr, Age 9
Let's not keep our kids up worrying at night. Let's clean up our own messes and get Mother Earth back on track. I'll drink to that.
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